Committee hears testimony on H.35 to permanently unmerge individual and small-group insurance markets

Legislative counsel, regulators and stakeholder witnesses described H.35, a bill that would permanently unmerge Vermont’s individual and small-group health insurance markets, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

“As the chair said, this is H.35. This is an act relating to unmerging the individual and small group health insurance markets,” Jen Carter of the Office of Legislative Counsel told the committee, outlining statutory cleanups and the substantive change: separating community rating and guaranteed-issue rules between the two markets and setting an effective date of Jan. 1, 2026.

Carter explained the bill removes obsolete pre-2016 language, clarifies how carriers may offer direct enrollment, and inserts separate guaranteed-issue provisions requiring carriers to accept all individuals in the individual market and all small employers and…